Some parents feel the decision of whether to have children is a tough one to make. An even tougher question is if you do decide to have them where to send them for child care once the time comes. The U.S. child care system continues to experience multiple crises, with families finding it difficult to locate reliable, affordable child care. Before the pandemic, the number of child care providers in the U.S. was already declining. Three years later and the problem is worse. Between December 2019 and March 2021, over 8,800 child care centers closed, and almost 7,000 licensed family child care